Representing the effort in resolving ambiguous scope

Abstract

This work proposes a way to formally model online scope interpretation in terms of recent experimental results. Specifically, it attempts to reconcile underspecified representations of semantic processing with results that show that there are higher-order dependencies between relative quantifier scope orderings that the processor may assert. It proposes a constrained data structure and movement operator that provides just enough specification to allow these higher-order dependencies to be represented. The operation reflects regression probabilities in one of the cited experiments.